


God's favourite customer

by Bananas45



Category: B: The Beginning (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Mind Control, My desperate attempt at a happy ending, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-07-04 13:34:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15842328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bananas45/pseuds/Bananas45
Summary: Three words unravel all their work. Three words pull apart Minatsuki’s delicate programming, undermine the mindset they’ve set up. Three words that change the course of history.But that’s humans for you though, isn’t it. So unpredictable.AU post ep 7.





	1. All I need is a new friend

**Author's Note:**

> So, I've had this idea for a while and never quite had the right way of writing it out. I'm still not sure how happy I am with it. This is my desperate attempt to give everyone a happy ending? I mean...They don't get a happy, happy ending, I guess they get away? I'm giving them a way to live. That's happy? right?  
> It's still mostly just existential angst though, don't worry.

Three words unravel all their work. Three words pull apart Minatsuki’s delicate programming, undermine the mindset they’ve set up. Three words that change the course of history. 

But that’s humans for you though, isn’t it. So unpredictable.  
Never put your faith in something that can let you down. Minatsuki had pinky promised on that sentiment years back but then again, sometimes someone can pull the rug out on you when you least expect it, especially when they told you the rug was .  
It’s not his fault though, it’s probably neither of their faults. Placing blame this late in the game will get none of them anywhere.  
If he were to go from the beginning it would be boring. Details were unimportant. At least he's convinced himself of that given how much the details seem to fade away.  
It was simple, really.  
The bullet missed, on the strangers part, whirled passed the side of his head, not that he considers himself lucky, it would have made no difference if it had landed.  
They bundled Koku up, kicking and screaming, spitting blood and sobbing and brought his friend along with them, dropped the both of them at the feet of their leader and had waited for the praise. Had been unsurprised when they got none. Regulus had been colder than ever.  
Laica had held the gun, steady as his expression against the temple of the detective who’d dared to intervene. 

and then the world, tumbling so happily up until then, seemed to stop. 

Three words that ruined everything. 

“Keep him alive” 

Regulus’ eyes had shined for the first time in their time together with an emotion, an emotion close in nature to compassion but probably more like possession. It felt familiar, in Minatsuki’s mind at least - though he couldn’t place it - they’d all watched, slightly concerned, as though their great leader had been taken over because, here, it was strange, it was bizarre. Loaded and layered.  
Regulus’ eyes seemed to soften, hand on the man’s chin.  
“Really, I didn’t expect this” He laughed and maybe that had hurt too. 

So months pass, Koku remains alive, forced to do tasks, change the world, for them and not himself for the privilege of seeing a girl programmed to manipulate him just how they want him. They all ignore how Regulus slowly takes over. Laica turns a blind eye to how Minatsuki fades away.  
It’s sickening really. It’s the first thought that’s out of line, Minatsuki thinks, a twitch in his circatory. 

 

He visits Regulus’ friend - who’s strictly off limits - all to often, probably because he’s off limits. He’d said it first, actually, told Minatsuki to his face - sounding surprising bored - that this was sick.  
Then they’d spoken about little things. Things like Minatsuki’s hair, the detectives beard, the whirl of the engine, the price on Minatsuki’s bottle. 

He knows, maybe knew from the beginning, that he was in too deep. Keith Flick was apparently a very dangerous man

“You’re back. You come by a lot for a leader” Keith murmurs, cleans his glasses and leans his hands on his knees as he huffs and stares at the roof, anything but the bars, Minatsuki guesses, though he doesn’t know.  
“I do” He says, slow and worried. This always feels illicit, makes his fingers tingle and the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Laica would kill him.  
“What’s happened to Koku?”  
Minatsuki sweeps his hair back. There is sweat already gathering on his forehead, the telltale signs that he needs a dose already creeping across his skin like little bugs. It’s this fucking ship, it’s this fucking job.  
He laughs but it must sound pained, the glass in his hand, mostly just ice now, clinks against the bars. He holds out a finger “My question first”  
“Off course” There is a smile, scholarly in it’s form, comforting in the strangest way.  
Minatsuki considers.  
“You grew up together” He says, trails his finger down the bar and spares a glance at the man.  
“Is that a question?” Keith - that’s his name, when did he forget - asks.  
Minatsuki presses his head to the cool mental, closing his eyes as he feels his balance waver, his smile is wolfish.  
“I’m...” he laughs, more out of breathlessness than anything else. “Establishing the facts”  
Keith hums in agreement. “I’m doing the same. Are you okay?” It’s tact on, clearly, as Keith begins to notice how obviously not okay he is.  
“No actually, I’m currently dying - ah, It was my question” He tuts and wags a finger, clicks his tongue. “If I was in better shape...I’d...”  
He thinks of that smile, so kind but stern, like a teacher or a father or - maybe - if he could just think on it for a moment. It’s like switching TV channels, trying to focus on what that smile reminded him off except one of those channels is just static when, really, there should be a show on-  
“You’d?...” Keith tries. “You can come back if your feeling peaky, I’m here all week”  
Minatsuki’s eyes flash open.  
“You grew up together, you’re friends but clearly you didn’t know-”  
“I had my suspicions but nothing concrete” Keith interrupts, then interrupts himself, scrunching his nose. “Well...I guess I wilfully ignored some of the warning signs. You do that...with people you care about”  
Oh how Minatsuki knows. He knows all too well.  
“Gilbert” Keith says softly. “Your god, Regulus, that’s his name...if you didn’t know.” Keith’s eyes are suddenly fierce, he leans forward. “He failed his maths exam four times, has an irrational fear of spiders- really it’s honestly debilitating- and can’t pronounce sandwiches...He says it like ‘sang-which-edges’ and no matter how many times I tell him it’s not -”  
the words are like poison. If someone put poison on the hob and turned on the gas, if the hob - in this analogy - was Minatsuki’s head and was suddenly, scorchingly, boiling over. There is nothing worse than hearing the domestic truths of your god and, fuck, Keith knows it.  
“Stop!” He gasps. Thinks of a childhood of fear and an adulthood of misery until he’s shaking. Everything he’s done, everything they’ve done and the man, Regulus, is just...A man but he knew that already.  
“Yeah it sucks doesn’t it” Keith murmurs. “And we go out for lunch too, it’s painful to watch him order-”  
The blade fists just perfectly through the bars, nicks just under the detectives chin.  
“Stop. Talking” Minatsuki growls and Keith’s hands raise in surrender, the bob of his adams apple cutting a little nick into his throat. Minatsuki watches the blood disappear into his shirt. He doesn’t know what makes him angrier, the idea Regulus had this life long side him or that he had it without him. Both feel as bad as each other. Why does he feel so betrayed by an anecdote about spiders?  
“How hard is it to hear?” Keith’s voice is strong now and it makes Minatsuki reel back just a little, as though the words could hurt him.  
“How hard to know you’ve been tricked all this time-”  
“I haven’t-”  
“He used you, Minatsuki” Keith’s voice is like a drill. “You practically worshipped him. You still do, a little, don’t you? You’re terrified of what he’d do if he found you talking to me. What did he say to you to make you not? What did he tell you I was?”  
Minatsuki almost, almost covers his ears but how long has he wanted to hear this somewhere other than inside his own head. It’s almost a dream come true.  
“Who are you doing all this for? him? yourself? this greater purpose?” Keith sits forward, up on his knees as he studies his face closer. “Fuck. You don’t know, do you...You’ve no idea what you’re doing”  
He’s shaking, aware of himself but utterly somewhere else. His nose is bleeding and everything hurts. It hurts so, so much. The crash of the blade on the metal of the ground is the only thing that makes him register the fact he’s fallen to his knees.  
“My turn” Keith huffs, resettling, unaffected and not even angry. Like ripping to shreds Minatsuki’s entire world was about as hard as a sudoku. “Do you wanna get out of here?”  
Minatsuki’s fear seems to solidify. Regulus was right about not visiting this man. He’s clearly got some power, something terrifying and mind altering that Minatsuki would actually consider it. Christ, he’s still considering it!  
He forces a grin, aware that it must look ugly.  
“Hah...So, what, you’re trying to use me to?” He leans forward, bracing against the bars. “You’re trying to get yourself out of here. I’m not blind”  
Keith snorts. “I don’t think you’d know what to do with yourself if you weren’t being used. Off course I am. Jesus, do you think I’m sat here playing twenty questions with you for fun?” A hand takes Minatsuki’s, warm despite being locked up for months, unthreatening despite how angry the man must be, careful but not manipulative. “But I am serious. Why are you still here?”  
Minatsuki opens his mouth to say something, anything but he can’t think. What is he still here for? They’ve got Koku. Is he not now free? in a sense?  
“I don’t...I don’t know” It’s the honesty that hurts the most, rips and claws at his chest. Their hands are closed around eachother, stuck in an odd handshake.  
“Hypothetically if we left-”  
“Hypothetically we’d be breaking out” Minatsuki interrupts, blinks a little. “Hypothetically we’ll land again in a day. I, hypothetically, unlock your cell door and we make a hypothetical run for it”  
“hypothetically how long will we last” Keith asks, voice low with contained hope, a fear of being found out now, last minute.  
“Hypothetically...depends who comes after us first” Minatsuki rolls his shoulders and this strange giddy feel overtakes his need for drugs, his need for anything else. It’s oddly childish. Could work though, couldn’t it? Who’d actually come after them? who cares enough.  
He can answer actually. He knows exactly who cares enough.  
Keith smiles like he’s noticed but clears his throat, eyes fluttering. “And Koku? Hypothetically what’s happened to him?”  
It’s like attaching a brick to Minatsuki’s hope and throwing it back into that sea of numbness.  
“Oh come on...” Minatsuki mumbles, headache returning tenfold. “You want me to break him out too?” He realises how it sounds, realises the look in Keith’s eyes and stutters on a extra “hypothetically”  
Keith holds his gaze. Minatsuki thinks of the screams, the torture, physical, mental, the unending that they’ve forced Koku through over the passed months. Thinks of him clung to Yuna’s side, hands shaking on her dress as he begs for mercy, Yuna stroking his silken black hair with half a smirk on her face, eyes blank-  
“He’s different now” Minatsuki sighs, shrugs. “He’s...They’ve done things to him”  
“Nothing irreversible” Keith says and Minatsuki looks over, catches his eye truly and wholly and wonders when he started to call it ‘them’ instead ‘we’  
“Some things are”  
Keith holds his gaze then shifts back “You’re all so melodramatic...So explain to me the plan Gilbert-”  
“I don’t know” Minatsuki snaps, then spits out a laugh that’s more of a snarl “No one tells me anything anymore”  
Keith sniffs “Probably cos you drink and sulk all day”  
Minatsuki laughs “Probably. Regulus-”  
“Gilbert”  
Minatsuki balances his tongue on his teeth but still can’t quite bring himself to say the name out loud “He’s never really liked me much anyway”  
“So they’re replacing you?” Keith asks.  
“No I think they’re just hoping I’ll die” Minatsuki says easily, voice light. “I probably will”  
“Remind me again why we’re talking in hypotheticals?”  
Minatsuki smiles, soft and secret. “I’m scared to leave I guess”  
“You’ve gotten attached” Keith snaps out the words as he yawns. “To your captures. The pirate king who was kidnapped by pirates. That sort of thing. Feel free to correct me here, I’m working out loud”  
Minatsuki sighs. “Who says I didn’t go willingly” He murmurs, running his thumb over his knuckles, staring at the path it leaves on his skin.  
“Are you saying that?”  
Minatsuki shrugs. “I don’t know” It’s heavy on his tongue.  
Keith eyes flash, like something's been unlocked, final piece to the puzzle or something and he sighs a soft ‘oh’ of realisation - about what though, Minatsuki doesn’t know. Keith’s had months to sit and work it all out. Regulus hadn’t been keen on leaving him alone - then again, as Laica had tactfully pointed out, there wasn’t another option but to kill him and Regulus hadn’t been too keen on that either. 

“What’re you doing down here?” 

Speak of the devil and he shall appear. 

Minatsuki’s eyes sweep over Laica.  
“What are you?” He asks in return and feels Keith’s gaze take in everything, every little quirk of his eyebrow, every tighten of Laica’s jaw. Once you know how much Keith can take in, you become hyper aware of how much you’re giving away.  
“I asked first” Laica says.  
“I’m your boss” Minatsuki snaps.  
Laica laughs, humourless and bitter. “Oh are you?”  
“Aren’t I?”  
Laica holds his gaze for two seconds before he pulls his glasses out and swings them across his eyes.  
“You’re needed” He says. “Don’t keep us waiting” 

With that in the air, a demand on top of all this uncertainty, like pulling out the wrong jenga block, it all comes crashing down. 

The key swings twice around his index finger on the ring, before he flicks it through the bars, listens for the noise of it being caught in a palm. 

They should have killed him when they had the chance.


	2. In the business of living

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really shouldn't write fight scenes...I'm terrible at it...So, why I did an entire chapter of it is beyond me. I apologise.

Keith has never felt an object so viscerally as he did the key in his palm. The feeling of the metal, cooling but warming, the slight wear on the bottom, the flash of the silver as he caught the light.   
It felt like freedom.   
Or maybe months of captivity had made him a little romantic.   
He doesn’t launch himself at the door or anything like that. He’s no idiot and besides it’s not like he trusts Minatsuki wholeheartedly. Boys like that - pretty blondes to be exact - seemed to be religiously good at manipulation and Keith isn’t about to be tricked. 

A few days pass and Minatsuki drops him some scraps off food and smiles a cryptic smile, childlike excitement in his eyes.   
“I’ll come for you” He winks. 

And come he does. In a flurry of gunshots and screams, sharp and loud on the metal of the airship. Minatsuki appears like some angel.   
“We don’t have much time” He says and Keith stands. “You still have that key right? -” He winces as a bullet rips through his arm. Keith can’t help but flinch. Minatsuki just tuts, inconvienced by it and shakes out his arm.   
It’s just then that Keith notices, tucked under Minatsuki arm like an overcoat is a body. Slender and broken, muscled but limp.   
“I broke your friend out too -” MInatsuki throws himself flat against the wall as another barrage of bullets come down the hall. “Yeah, I know, Thank me later.”   
Keith unlocks the door as Minatsuki returns fire and just manages to catch the body as it’s thrown. Minatsuki’s face is the picture of contentment, as though the idea that every moment could be his last, like every moment - filled with adrenaline and hyper agile - is being savoured. Then again, Minatsuki was made for this type of work.   
Koku is light in his arms, unnaturally light. His head lolls in Keith’s arms, long line of his throat exposed, arm hung down and face just a little pained, lips parted as he breathes gently, completely unaware of his surroundings.   
“Come on” Minatsuki says, throws him a gun and disappears round the corner in a flurry of hair.   
Keith follows as close as he can.   
“There is a cargo exit, it’ll be open” Minatsuki’s eyes are wide, filled with glee.   
“I’m -” Keith gasps, struggling to keep up “Glad one of us is having fun”   
Minatsuki stops, throws his hand out to make sure Keith doesn’t go any further. Cat like in his movements as though he’s heard something Keith hasn’t. Then again, he isn’t actually human, Keith needs to keep reminding himself of that.   
“I’ll count to five then you run for that opening” Minatsuki whispers, checks round the corner of the cargo bay and bites his cheek. He smiles, laughs bitterly “Every reggie in the city will be after you, you know. So don’t thank me”   
The opening is so close, Keith can feel the air, sharp and cold, billow in from the gaping hole in the ship.   
“Know any good places near by?” Keith whispers in return.   
Minatsuki considers for a moment, taps the barrel of his gun against his nose.   
“It’s pretty residential around here” He whispers.   
“Ah” Keith says.  
“You’re shaking” Minatsuki notes suddenly, confusion in his voice as he tilts his head.   
“I’m scared” Keith shrugs. “Death is a hard concept for humans.”   
Minatsuki chuckles under his breath. “If anyone is dying here it’s me”   
“It’s not a competition” Keith mutters.   
“I’ll cover you” Minatsuki says over the top of him and launches, ignoring his own little five second rule into the cargo bay.   
Keith didn’t expect him to anyway.   
“It’s clear anyway” Minatsuki shouts. “I guess they really didn’t expect this”   
Keith watches him, the way the harsh light catches him, how sad he looks.   
“Did you want them to?”   
Minatsuki smiles gently and blinks. “I don’t know”   
Keith adjusts Koku in his arms, feels the movement of his shoulder blades under his thumbs as he moves, ragdoll limp, in Keith’s arms.   
“What did you do to him?”   
Minatsuki shrugs. “I think it’s like four rounds of horse tranquilizer. It’ll wear off fast. He’s hard to get down”   
Keith is not surprised to hear it and for a moment he feels oddly proud.   
They make there way to the exit.   
“And you’re coming with us?” Keith asks as he sets foot on the grass, looks up at the starless sky and the expanse of abandoned runway ahead off them. He revels in the feeling of the wind in his hair, the sharp fresh air on his tongue.   
“I guess I am” Minatsuki smiles, soft and unguarded for the first time and then his eyes close, his nose twitches and his jaw clenches   
“Fuck” he snarls.   
The rest happens in slow motion. Keith knows he wouldn’t have had time to hear the gunshot, had it landed, he would have been dead before the noise registered but Minatsuki’s hand shoots out, changes in a flash into the blade that slices through the empty air. Keith watches in shock as two halves of a bullet fall to the ground. 

“Don’t move” 

Minatsuki smiles and turns. “Oh Laica. Joining the party-”   
A bullet lands in Minatsuki’s shoulder, another in his rib and a third in his thigh.   
“Ow...” he whispers.   
“You know I’m not letting them go” Laica says, voice contained but strained with anger. “You know I’m not letting you go”   
Minatsuki’s tongue catches the blood at the side of his mouth.   
“Yeah, I suspected” He smiles.   
Keith takes a step back, towards the tree line and the darkness, accentuated by the brightness of the runway. Keith knows they wouldn’t find him.   
“Don’t move, Flick” Laica snarls, patience wearing thin. “I’m serious”   
Minatsuki is gone in the seconds between the words, practically leaving a dust trail behind him as he launches himself back into the ship.   
Laica side steps the attack, spins a knife from the back of his pocket up into his palm and has it under Minatsuki’s chin by the time as the blade on Minatsuki halts centimetres from his eye.   
Keith notices how the gun, extended in Laica’s other arm, is still trained on him. Fuck, they’re good.   
Minatsuki grins “Cute little butter knife you got there, Laica” It cuts into the underside of his chin. Keith watches the blood roll down the blade and onto Laica’s hand.   
“Don’t push me, Minatsuki” Laica says, tone dropped, voice low and commanding. “Do you want to do this?” He asks, soft and oddly demure. “You’re about to ruin everything. Bring them back and we can talk about this-”   
“Don’t listen-” Keith barks and gets a warning shot between his feet.   
“Talk?” Minatsuki laughs and tilts his head away. “We never talk, Laica” Minatsuki’s eyes flutter. “I don’t what it is about you...” It trails off and Keith watches the defeated slump in Minatsuki’s shoulders as he leans forward.   
“It’s okay” Laica hand, blade between two fingers, trails Minatsuki’s hair out his face.   
Minatsuki mumbles. “I just...wanted to do the right thing”   
Laica’s frown is gentle, telling in a way, he looks genuinely confused. “We’re doing the right thing, already” 

“Ah...” Minatsuki smiles, wide and vicious. “So sentimental” 

Keith hadn’t even seen him pull the gun before he fires the whole clip into Laica’s chest. He stumbles back, looks down in shock.  
“Wow” He says gently, fingers dipping into the holes as Minatsuki repositions himself. “I didn’t think you had it in you. I’m surprised you’re sober enough to fire a gun”   
Minatsuki chuckles. “Don’t play games with me, Laica. Don’t pretend you like me”   
Laica’s eyebrows raise. “This has nothing to do with you” He fires a shot that skims Minatsuki’s cheek. “It has everything to do with what you’ve done. You think that detective wants you?” Laica grins “He’ll throw you aside the second he gets what he wanted from you-”   
“And you wouldn’t?” Keith can’t help but shout. Laica turns on him but doesn’t pull the trigger.   
“Have I yet?” He says instead, spares half a glance at Keith. “You’ve betrayed us, Minatsuki. Under normal circumstances Regulus would want you dead but...He’s always had a soft spot for you, hasn’t he?” It’s so vicious, the edge to Laica’s voice becoming childish and jealous.   
“Soft spot?” Minatsuki shouts, eyes suddenly wild, like a switch has been flicked. He moves too fast for Keith to keep track off. The two meet in the middle and Laica pulls a blade of his own even if his footing slips when it crashes against Minatsuki’s. “Oh you could call it that-” There is a wild unpredictability in Minatsuki’s movements, at points he seems elegant, others he seems undertrained, kicking Laica off when their blades cross in the wrong way. “You’re an idiot, Laica. You’re a fucking idiot. You think I did any of this for Regulus? You think I did any of this for Market maker?” He’s unrelenting in his offence, until Laica’s footing slips and Minatsuki balances over him, blade to his chest.   
Laica looks up. “No, Minatsuki. I know exactly who you’ve done this for. I know exactly why you do everything”   
The blade wavers.   
Keith watches the confusion, thinks how this is the opportune moment to run. The two of them are perfectly still, barely breathing. Koku shifts in his arms, eyes fluttering open. He blinks them open, shock covering his pretty face, before anger clouds them, he tries bolt upright but his limbs seem unresponsive.   
“Don’t Koku. It’s Keith, remember me?”   
Koku’s eyes don’t hold recognition, but then again, they don’t look aggressive. He tries to move again.   
“Keith?” he says softly before going limp again, eyes falling closed.   
Another gunshot breaks the peace and Keith looks up. The glasses Laica wore lie a metre away, bullet ridden and Minatsuki’s hair is blood stained from where the bullet skimmed his temple.

“You missed” Laica gasps, leant up on one elbow as he holds the gun steady on Minatsuki’s forehead and Minatsuki, straddled across Laica’s waist now, both hands on the gun and hair covering his face except for the smirk, clicks his tongue.

“So did you” 

“What are we going to do?” Laica’s eyes don’t leave Minatsuki’s. 

“I don’t know what you’re going to do.” Minatsuki says cheerily. “But me? I rigged the ship to blow” 

Laica tenses and the gun is thrust up a little. “What?” 

Minatsuki laughs, throws his head back in a way that is unbridled in it’s amusement but unhinged in it’s tone.   
“Didn’t think I had it in me?” Minatsuki leans down. “I’m not as stupid as you think I am”   
Laica blinks and lies back down. “Well, you’ve won. Congratulations. Just like when we were kids. You can never just-”   
Minatsuki seems to snap. “It’s not about that!” He yells. It echoes violently around the empty hanger and dissipates into the night air.   
“It's not about you and it’s not about me” Minatsuki trains the gun with more convictions. “That detective’s got a good heart and it...” Minatsuki closes his eyes.   
Laica sneers. “You want to be free Minatsuki? Is that it?”   
Minatsuki flinches, jaw tight.   
“You think you can be?” Laica leans up and tilts his head. “God you really think you can”   
He sighs, gentle and soft and drops the gun. “I guess I shouldn’t really encourage your hope. It’s unfair...” He trails off. “Actually it’s cruel” his hands, raised in surrender, cup Minatsuki’s cheeks.   
“Don’t touch me-” It’s panicked.   
“I’m not cruel” Laica says softly and Keith watches the gun tremble in Minatsuki’s hands, watches the blue light play across Minatsuki’s face. “I love you...” Laica says, bites his lip gently. “Why can’t you see that?”   
The truth hits Keith like a ton of bricks. 

Two parts to make a whole and all that crap. Suddenly Koku is much too heavy in his arms. 

Fuck. 

“Minatsuki!” He shouts and fires a shot between the two of them. Minatsuki falls back, as though he’s just woken up and scrambles halfway to his feet, eyes hazy.   
Laica clicks his tongue and shakes his head. “The things I’d do to you if Regulus didn’t want you alive”   
Minatsuki rushes him, in a last ditch attempt at something - revenge maybe - and Keith stumbles back as their movements blur into the clash off blades, fists and feet flying as shots bounce around the ship.   
They’re perfectly matched but Minatsuki’s upper hand is fading with confusion and exhaustions and Keith watches Laica deliver a vicious kick that sends Minatsuki backwards and through a railing.   
He’s bloodied, Keith notes, nose broken and shirt in tatters, blazer hanging off his shoulder. Laica straightens his glove.   
“Laica...” He murmurs as he watches Laica raise his fist again. He’s pretty, eyes shining with tears through the mess of cuts on his face, hands held up as he defends himself and Laica hesitates. Minatsuki launches for his throat. Laica grabs his wrist.   
“Nice try. Cheap trick, Minatsuki” He whispers, pulling the arm taunt as he buries his nose in MInatsuki hair. “Won’t work on me”   
Keith hears the wrist snap and watches Laica bend Minatsuki’s elbow backwards until it pops. Minatsuki screams, eyes wide as Laica lets him go, watching him fall limp against the ground before he empties another clip into Minatsuki’s body. It goes still.   
“Give me the boy back” Laica snaps, stepping over Minatsuki and walking towards Keith.   
Keith tightens his grip till his knuckles go white and feels that pin prick of fear etch it’s way across his skin, like the first time they met - him and Koku - with so much still not understood. He’s terrified.   
Maybe that’s a pleasant change from the mundane.   
Nah, it’s not. It’s pretty horrible.   
Laica raises the gun. “Now”   
The pile in his arms, feather-light and inhuman in stillness suddenly springs to life, launches in a flash off fire and a burst of bone and blood and sinew away from Keith and towards Laica and taken completely off guard, Laica falls, shock in his matching eyes as Koku holds the blade to his throat. Koku snarls, shaking and feral, nose curled and blade pressing insistent against Laica who only just manages to fit his own in between himself and Koku’s.   
Laica swallows, breath frantic as his grip weakens, the blade, Koku’s rage and endless strength he draws from it, no match for Laica - already a fight down. Keith watches the it, simmering, cut into Laica’s throat- 

“Wait!” 

Keith and Koku look up in time with each other. Koku’s eye sharpens, retracts and curls, focuses on the noise.   
It’s Minatsuki, pushing himself up on one hand as he crawls to his knees and stands shakily, he holds his stomach, winces and steps forward, other arm limp and mangled at his side.   
“Please...” He croaks.   
Koku doesn’t say anything but his head tilts as he stares down.   
“Just...”   
Laica is watching them both carefully, breath uneven.   
“Spare him” Minatsuki says and wipes the blood off his face. “Please”   
Koku looks at Keith, gaze confused and hazy. He’ll pass out again soon, Keith can tell. The blade doubles down in strength and Laica cries out.   
“Please!” Minatsuki shouts, more desperate this time.   
“Why?” Koku mutters.   
There is a lot Minatsuki wants to say, the words seem to curl on his tongue like smoke but he doesn’t say them, instead he wipes his eyes, that obviously have not filled with tears and curls his nose. 

“He’s not worth it” 

He walks towards the tree line, movements clanky as his arm begins to heal. Keith offers his hand and Koku, eyes still on Laica, takes it. His hand is small, fragile almost, in Keith’s and so cold, snow white skin really as snowy as it looks. Keith squeezes reassuringly. 

 

When he catches up, when street lamps begin to dot the horizon and they hear cars on a motorway, Keith grabs Minatsuki’s arm.   
“What you did back there-”   
“I don’t want to talk about it” Minatsuki says softly, eyes downcast.   
“It was-”   
“I know what it was!” Minatsuki turns, face taunt with loathing “I shouldn’t have left him alive. I know that” He barks, blue eyes sharp and cold. “Don’t tell me I’m weak-”   
“It was brave” Keith interrupts. “And kind”   
Minatsuki blinks and when his eyes reopen they’re brimmed with tears. 

“You’re a good kid, Minatsuki.”


End file.
